Feature Film Scripts
Finished Scripts
"Sgt. Meat"
NOTE:
In February 2025, Mike started giving me NEW MATERIAL! I’ll be adding it in as I receive it. I expect to have a final polished script by May 1 of this year, but in the meantime there are 105 pages available below.
This is the “as told to” story of Sgt. Mike Meath, a chiropractor and Iraq War veteran, whose real-life experiences in Iraq as a medic resemble the absurdities of Catch-22, but with a modern twist. His stories, shared over coffee, have been transformed into a script. The result is an engaging and entertaining narrative about war, full of chaos and absurdity—yet it’s all true. Sgt. “Meat” is not a typo, but rather what some of Mike’s buddies call him, since he is a medic riding in the “meat wagon” or medical vehicle. (Actually, this is the only thing I’ve made up. Everything else is true.)
Shit that goes wrong (bullet list)
Lightning striking Meath and his squad in basic training is not a good omen.
Meath is sent on his first mission without bullets.
His vehicle at the training base in the States constantly breaks down, but he is assured he will be issued a new vehicle when they go to Iraq. But when he arrives in Iraq, guess what? They lied. Same vehicle. √
When his vehicle inevitably breaks down in the desert, his lieutenant tells him to stay with it and they’ll be right back for him. They return two days later! So much for “No man left behind.”
Meath is nearly killed by a mortar round while in the porta-john, but the round is a dud, landing five yards away but not exploding. His fellow soldiers laugh about it when he emerges: “Haha, bet you were scared shitless!”
Meath is nearly killed by a tank gunner who loses his grip on the tank turret’s 50-caliber machine gun and lets it swivel wildly, firing away toward Meath and his squad.
Meath is nearly killed by “wedding rain”—bullets that fall from the sky after being shot in a wedding celebration a couple miles away.
The Iraqi National Guard were allies of the Americans. Meath almost kills a bunch of them by accident, thinking they’re the enemy. Thankfully, the machine gun he grabs jams and doesn’t fire, giving him a moment to realize his mistake in time.
Meath is nearly killed by a 12-year-old (you read that right) Iraqi National Guard trainee who loses control of his semi-automatic rifle while learning to fire it for the first time.
Meath loses his chance to go home early when a friendly lieutenant who was going to file the paperwork gets a random piece of shrapnel through the head while in his office typing an email to his wife.
A sergeant at a checkpoint randomly shoots up a carful of Iraqi citizens for no reason, and orders Meath to take them to the morgue. When Meath dumps them there, he finds tens of thousands of American dollars on their bodies. As he starts to bundle the money into his jacket to take with him, he is startled by the sudden arrival of two large Iraqi morgue attendants. Now going on no sleep for 72 hours, Meath instinctively draws his 9-mm pistol and aims it at the two unarmed men….
Wanna know what happens next?
Read the script.
And it’s all true!
George Clooney would love this one!
500 word synopsis
“Sgt. Meat” is the true story of Sergeant Michael Meath, a U.S. Army medic, whose experiences in Iraq highlight the chaos, incompetence, and sheer absurdity of war. Rather than focusing on heroism or reflection, the story presents Meath’s many near-death experiences as a product of both the Army’s dysfunction and the randomness of war.
The narrative kicks off with an ominous event during basic training, when Meath and his squad are struck by lightning, foreshadowing the absurd and dangerous situations that will follow. On his first mission, Meath is sent out without any bullets. (Yes, you read that right.) Throughout his deployment, Meath finds himself facing death multiple times, always in ridiculous and unpredictable ways, far from the heroism he imagined when he enlisted.
While in training in the U.S., his vehicle breaks down so many times he nicknames it “Broke Down Betty.” Despite assurances that he would receive a new vehicle upon arriving in Iraq, Meath finds himself stuck with the same unreliable truck. When “Betty” inevitably breaks down in the desert, his lieutenant orders him to stay with the vehicle, promising to return shortly. Meath is left stranded for two days before being rescued, a clear mockery of the Army’s “No man left behind” mantra.
Meath’s brushes with death escalate in intensity. A mortar round hits right next to the porta-john he’s using, but it’s a dud, and his fellow soldiers laugh and joke about it when he emerges. (“I’ll bet you were scared shitless!”) In another instance, a tank gunner loses control of a 50-caliber machine gun, sending bullets wildly in Meath’s direction, nearly killing him and his squad. Another close call comes from an Iraqi wedding celebration miles away, where celebratory gunfire rains down on Meath when is “safe” on base. In an intense firefight, Meath nearly shoots a group of Iraqi National Guard soldiers, mistaking them for enemies. (The Iraqi National Guard were U.S. allies.) Luckily, the machine gun jams, giving him just enough time to realize his mistake. In another instance, a 12-year-old Iraqi National Guard trainee accidentally loses control of his semi-automatic rifle, sending bullets flying around Meath, who once again narrowly escapes harm.
The story takes a darker turn when a friendly lieutenant, who was about to file the paperwork for Meath’s early release, is killed in his office by a stray piece of shrapnel while typing an email to his wife. Later, Meath is tasked with transporting the bodies of civilians who were randomly killed by a gung-ho sergeant at a checkpoint. Discovering over a hundred thousand dollars in cash on the bodies, Meath contemplates taking it, only to be startled by the arrival of two Iraqi morgue attendants, causing him to draw his pistol in a moment of sleep-deprived panic. (You’ll have to read the script to know how that episode ends.)
Sgt. Meat is not about heroism or moral reflection, but instead focuses on the absurdity, randomness, and incompetence that define Meath’s experiences in Iraq. Survival is as much about navigating the dysfunction of one’s own side as it is about avoiding enemy fire, and it often feels like a matter of pure chance.
"Jalan Jalan"
Jalan Jalan is an award-winning novel by British author Mike Stoner, inspired by sad events in his life and his time in Indonesia. In the story, James tries to forget his dead girlfriend, Laura, but at the same time he finds comfort in remembering her. Which is fairly easy, because she is a ghost haunting him—sometimes friendly, sometimes taunting him. In life, Laura often spoke playfully of mystical notions of time and space. Late in the story, James meets a shaman, who does some magic that makes James feel some hope. At the end of the story, we—and James—are led to believe it just might be possible that when he goes back to England, she may actually be alive and waiting for him. During this whole journey, James has subtle but powerful effects on the people he comes to know in Indonesia, because despite his tragic loss, his basic kindness and regard for others remains intact.
500 word synopsis
Jalan Jalan follows James, a young Englishman who moves to Indonesia after the sudden death of his girlfriend, Laura, who was struck by a bus. The couple had planned to reunite after three months apart, but her tragic death leaves James grappling with deep grief. Taking a job as an English teacher, he tries to escape his pain, but Laura’s ghost haunts him, along with flashbacks of their time together.
In Indonesia, James forms bonds with the local expat teachers, including Kim, a carefree half-Vietnamese half-American man who pulls him into the chaotic nightlife of Medan. One night in a nightclub he meets Eka, a beautiful young Indian woman who advises him “No talk to dead girl.” (Laura). She knows James cannot commit to her, but she remains unwavering, as she helps him through moments of illness and confusion.
James’s job brings him into contact with Charles, a wealthy Chinese-Indonesian businessman, whose children, Fitri, 15, and Benny, 10, bond with James during their English lessons. Charles, protective and reserved, shares a deeper connection with James, as both men cope with past trauma—Charles is painfully estranged from his wife, but too proud to try to approach her.
A turning point occurs at Mei’s bar when Barry, an expat bully, confronts the teachers. A previously quiet teacher stands up to Barry, and the rest of the group supports him, forcing Barry to back down when his friends desert him.
During an excursion to the jungle to see orangutans, James stands up to a drunk Liverpudlian harassing a local girl. This act of courage contrasts with his usual introspection and marks significant personal growth.
Despite his deep loss and internal turmoil, James forms deep connections with both fellow teachers and local residents. He retains his capacity to care for others, resulting in a quiet but often profound healing impact on those around him.
In life, Laura was fascinated by the mystical possibilities of time and space and alternate realities. Through Charles, James meets a local shaman, who performs a magical ritual to remove Laura’s ghost and take away his pain. Her ghost seemingly disappears, replaced by a lingering sense that Laura may, against all odds, be waiting for James, alive and well, upon his return to England. This possibility, whether real or imagined, offers James a kind of hope, and the feeling that life, time, and love are far more fluid than he had once believed.
Scripts in Progress
After my short films made 150 festival appearances, I started to concentrate on writing features. During Covid I wrote 300 pages on scripts I thought I might be able to shoot myself. As each one turned out to have too big a budget, I would start another one, only to find the same result. I even had a script one-third written for a film in Japan (in Japanese) until my Japanese producer told me the $40,00 budget quote he gave me only works when you shoot in Tokyo (where all the cast and crew are based). Then I went to Idaho for a few months and wrote and shot a movie there. Now, after having traveled to Japan, India, the Philippines, and Vietnam, I’ve finally settled in Russia, where I’m finishing some of those earlier scripts. I actually started The Grief Ranch in 2013, inspired by the experience of a friend whose daughter died of a drug overdose. Since grief has no resolution, I found it hard to write a script that addressed it properly, without showing easy solutions for the characters, yet still being hopeful. I’ve now figured out how to complete that script, and it will be the first one I finish. Meanwhile, I’ve also come up with some fascinating ideas for a sci-fi movie and a speculative fiction miniseries.
"The Grief Ranch"
The Grief Ranch follows a group of strangers who gather at a remote ranch to cope with profound personal losses, each burdened by their grief in different ways. But when their expected therapist goes into early labor and is unable to join them, the group is left to face their grief without professional guidance. They must find strength within themselves and each other, sometimes intentionally and sometimes through raw, unplanned interactions.
500 word synopsis
Main Characters:
Suzette: Struggling with banishment from her family after indirectly causing her sister’s death during a night of drinking, Suzette feels weighed down by overwhelming feelings of blame and guilt. Her attempt to take her own life at the ranch becomes a pivotal moment for the group.
Josh: At just 17, Josh is grappling with the recent death of his father, with whom he shared a deep bond. Josh is sometimes able to hear his father’s voice—though this phenomenon stops after he arrives at the ranch.
Teresa: A mother who recently lost both her husband and one of her young daughters, Teresa’s grief is compounded by her anger at God and her inability to care for her surviving children. Teresa’s growing interest in Josh’s ability to “connect” with his father leads her to question the finality of death and search for her own form of solace.
Mike: A high school coach and teacher, Mike is a broken man after the loss of his daughter to a drug overdose. His reluctance to face his emotions keeps him at arm’s length from the others, but his protective instincts kick in when Suzette’s life is at risk.
Allison: After her husband’s death, Allison’s anger toward his negligence in managing his diabetes consumes her. Though outwardly tough, she is deeply shaken by Suzette’s suicide attempt and becomes more engaged with the group as a result.
Kelly: Kelly is abrasive and over-controlling, projecting her unresolved grief over her son’s death onto the others. Her harshness leads to confrontations, but it also forces critical emotional breakthroughs, especially with Suzette.
The ranch itself is run by Rollie, the caretaker, and Earl, the ranch’s reluctant owner. Without a therapist to guide them, Rollie reluctantly steps into a leadership role, though he knows he’s out of his depth. Despite the absence of a professional, the group comes together, slowly building trust with one another.
A turning point occurs when Suzette attempts suicide one night. Paramedics arrive the next morning, offering to take her to the hospital, but Suzette insists on staying at the ranch. The group rallies around her, realizing they must support each other if they are to get through their individual battles with grief.
Two characters have deep secrets:
Earl lost a son to suicide, and left a successful career in the city to escape all memories of his old life.
Kelly’s son is not dead, but she tells people he died so she can avoid confronting the painful fact that she emotionally abused her son so much that he moved to Europe after high school and never spoke to her again.
Ultimately, The Grief Ranch explores how people can become accidental healers for one another, even in the absence of formal guidance. The ranch becomes less about structured therapy and more about the human connections forged through shared pain, guilt, and vulnerability. Each character is forced to confront their grief head-on, often with the help of someone else’s story or perspective. Together, they discover that healing can come from unexpected places, even if the wounds of loss never fully disappear.
"The Horror!"
Intense filmmaker Elena and her laid-back ex, Jake, attempt to create a horror movie on a shoestring budget at an abandoned ranch that once housed delinquent boys. Elena manages to compensate for most of the mistakes made by their inept crew, but disaster strikes when a rogue spark from a near dead campfire burns up their monster costume one night. Running out of time, and desperate for a monster for their movie, they attempt a seance to summon the ghost of Jeffrey, a boy who died there. To their surprise, Jeffrey appears, but of course a ghost won’t show up on camera. But he is able to move very light objects, and forms a spectral “Cobweb Man” worthy of a high-tech effects house. (It was actually Jeffrey who wafted the spark over to burn up the monster.) Elena fires the cast and crew, but rehires them in different positions worthy of each one’s true talent. They manage to get the film done just in time for a special screening—though they have a little problem trying to explain to Jeffrey why he can’t appear in the credits!
NOTE: The original script features two feuding sisters as the filmmakers, but I’ll be changing it to a romantic comedy with Elena and Jake as feuding exes.
500 word synopsis
Determined filmmaker Elena partners reluctantly with her easygoing ex-boyfriend, Jake, to produce a horror movie on a shoestring budget at an abandoned ranch that once housed delinquent boys. The shoot is a personal mission for Elena, whose rigid, no-nonsense approach to filmmaking contrasts sharply with Jake’s relaxed attitude. Old tensions quickly resurface as the production begins, fueled by Jake’s carefree charm and Elena’s need to keep everything on schedule. Adding to the chaos is their unpredictable crew member, Freddie, whose admiration for both Elena and Jake leaves each of them wondering: is Freddie interested in one of them? His ambiguous praise keeps the leads and even the audience guessing, creating an undercurrent of humor and rivalry.
The crown jewel of their horror movie is a homemade monster costume—a hulking, terrifying suit meant to be the star of the show. But one night, as the crew gathers around a campfire, a spark mysteriously leaps from the fire onto the costume, igniting it before they can save it. The crew is devastated, left without their monster and with no funds to create a replacement.
In a moment of desperation, Freddie proposes an impromptu séance to summon any ghosts from the ranch’s dark past, jokingly calling upon spirits to help with the film. To everyone’s shock, they make contact with Jeffrey, a delinquent boy who died on the property decades ago. The crew is spooked at first, but Jeffrey quickly reveals his own agenda: he’s responsible for the campfire mishap because he wants to be part of the movie.
Desperate for a solution, Elena and Jake agree to let Jeffrey “act” in the film. In his ghostly form, Jeffrey can gather cobwebs from around the old ranch and mold them into a spectral, mummy-like figure—a “Cobweb Man” that lumbers and shambles on camera with an eerily human form. As they film, Jeffrey’s cobweb-clad figure creates the terrifying effect they’d hoped for, adding a haunting quality that exceeds anything they’d envisioned with the original costume.
Elena’s initial apprehension turns to awe as she realizes how effective the “Cobweb Man” is, while Jake, impressed by the ghost’s strange creativity, tries to convince Elena to acknowledge Jeffrey’s unique contributions. Freddie takes on the role of Jeffrey’s confidant, delivering playful messages from the ghost while nudging Elena and Jake toward reconciliation. Working with their ghostly co-star forces Elena to let go of her strict plans, and she begins to reconnect with Jake amid the eerie yet hilarious events on set.
When they finally wrap production, Jeffrey has one last request: he wants his name in the credits and a spot at the screening!
Treatments
"Deep Game"
(Sci-fi Thriller)
Informed by Michael Crichton’s techno-thrillers, Deep Game explores the perilous fusion of virtual reality, quantum computing, and the mysteries of consciousness. When VR6, a revolutionary virtual reality system powered by a military-grade quantum computer, malfunctions, two players become trapped in separate digital dimensions with no clear way back.
One, a pro-gamer and expert parkourist, is thrown into Monster Planet Inferno, an ultraviolent hellscape where grotesque creatures hunt him relentlessly, forcing him to fight for survival as his grip on reality begins to slip. The other, a 15-year-old girl, finds herself in a serene, mind-bending puzzle world, where the illusions of the game offer her the peace and escape from the real world she has long craved. While the gamer battles for his life, she resists rescue altogether.
The game company, in over their heads, scrambles to retrieve the players before their bodies and minds deteriorate. But as the true nature of VR6’s quantum consciousness emerges, it becomes clear that saving both may not be an option. If only one can return, who should it be—the high-profile e-sports star whose skills could help him escape, or the teenage niece of the game’s lead designer, who has no desire to come back?
2000 word treatment
Movie Treatment: “Deep Game”
Informed by Michael Crichton’s techno-thrillers, this story delves deep into the dangerous intersection of virtual reality and quantum mechanics, combining cutting-edge technology with the mysteries of consciousness. As characters disappear into virtual worlds, a desperate race to retrieve them leads to a deadly confrontation with the fundamental nature of reality.
Act 1: The Breakthrough and the Disappearance
At the helm of Vasquez Virtual (VV) stands Diego Vasquez, a brilliant yet ruthless 31-year-old entrepreneur with a dark past. Diego’s path to success was shaped by hardship. He taught himself 3D design, and he hacked university computers at the age of 12, desperate to escape his humble beginnings as the son of a night janitor. Now, Diego is poised to launch VR6, his most ambitious project yet—a 6th generation virtual reality system that uses a quantum computing module and the latest hardware.
The VR6 combines full-immersion technology with haptic suits, brain-computer interfaces, video in contact lenses (such technology currently exists, by the way) and an experimental 4D quantum module. This module, designed by VV’s head engineer, Akarsh Roy, pushes the boundaries of what virtual reality can achieve, making it possible for players to feel as though they’re stepping into entirely new dimensions. Diego sees VR6 as his ticket to toppling his rival, Unicorn VR, the company that cheated him out of his first game years ago. The pressure is mounting, and Diego knows that the launch must go perfectly, even though several troubling glitches have been reported by the beta testers.
As the press conference for VR6 begins, the room is buzzing with excitement. Jean-Paul Mbengue, a charismatic 25-year-old professional gamer and parkourist and VV’s top spokesperson, is expected to make a grand entrance. Known for his acrobatic stunts and parkour moves, Jean-Paul has become the face of the VR6 system, with millions of fans awaiting his every move. However, as the countdown to his arrival ticks away, Jean-Paul is nowhere to be found.
Diego, unfazed, moves forward with the event, showcasing the VR6 system and its slogan: “The possibilities are limitless.” By his side is Beatrice Clemmons, VV’s head of marketing and story developer. A sharp-witted woman in her late 30s, Beatrice is loyal to Diego but carries the weight of personal issues—most notably, her strained relationship with her sister Charlisse Dillingham and Charlisse’s teenage daughter, Tarina.
Meanwhile, at VV’s headquarters, Mo Gropman, a determined and tenacious investigative journalist, is covering the launch. Mo has spent years in the trenches of hard news but is now relegated to what she sees as fluff stories. However, when she overhears Beatrice discussing the strange absence of Jean-Paul and the missing prototype haptic suit, her curiosity is piqued. She begins to suspect that there’s more going on than just a delayed celebrity gamer.
Later that evening, Beatrice receives a frantic call from a local hospital: Charlisse has been admitted to the psychiatric ward, rambling incoherently after a traumatic incident. Beatrice rushes to her sister’s side, only to discover that Tarina has mysteriously vanished. The last time Beatrice saw her niece, they were at the VV offices, where Tarina was given a private tour and tried on one of the prototype haptic suits. Now, Tarina is missing, and all Charlisse can do is scream about her daughter disappearing into thin air right in front of her eyes.
Beatrice, shaken but unwilling to admit something so inexplicable, returns to Tarina’s room and finds the haptic suit and headset crumpled on the floor, as if the girl had vanished while wearing them. Unsure of what to do, Beatrice takes the equipment and keeps it secret, worried about the implications for VV’s upcoming launch.
Act 2: Unraveling the Mystery
The next day, Mo Gropman returns to VV for follow-up interviews. Sensing Beatrice’s unease, she confronts her about the missing Jean-Paul and the whispers of a disappearing teenager. Beatrice, holding onto her professionalism, tries to play it cool, but her facade crumbles when Mo reveals a video she found on Tarina’s YouTube channel. The video, which has since been taken down, shows Tarina putting on the prototype haptic suit and immersing herself in a mystery-solving game. Charlisse enters the frame, trying to get her daughter’s attention, and then suddenly, Tarina vanishes into thin air, leaving nothing behind but the haptic suit on the floor.
Beatrice is stunned, unable to deny the truth anymore. Desperate for answers, she turns to Akarsh, VV’s brilliant but eccentric lead engineer. Akarsh has been working tirelessly on the 4D quantum module that powers the VR6 system, but even he doesn’t fully understand how it works. He theorizes that the suit’s technology may have somehow synchronized with an alternate reality, pulling Tarina out of their world and into another dimension. This revelation leads them to Professor Ellen Dibbs, a renowned quantum physicist and Akarsh’s former mentor, who confirms the worst of their fears.
Ellen, in her 50s, is an intellectual powerhouse, calm and methodical in her thinking. After reviewing Akarsh’s data, she explains that the VR6’s revolutionary 4D module didn’t just simulate alternate realities—it connected with them. The synchronization of the brain-computer interface and the haptic suit has created a link between dimensions, effectively transporting the players into a real version of the game world.
With two lives— Jean-Paul and Tarina—now on the line, the VV team scrambles to understand how to reverse the process. Diego, always pragmatic and focused on his company’s success, is primarily concerned with retrieving Jean-Paul. The upcoming VR Olympics, a global competition that Jean-Paul was training for, and is critical for VV’s future. If they can’t bring Jean-Paul back, VV will be ruined.
However, Beatrice is torn. Her niece, Tarina, is trapped in an unknown reality, and she fears that Diego’s obsession with profit will overshadow her family’s crisis. Akarsh devises a plan to use the remaining prototype haptic suit to as an interface to the virtual worlds, tapping into chief programmer Judy Wu’s implanted brain device, which helps prevent her from having epileptic seizures. This connects her brain directly to the computer system, allowing her to manipulate the game’s code from the inside. She will try to open a “back door” to bring the players back, but all that computing power running through her brain may kill her before she finishes. Meanwhile, Jean-Paul is losing his battle in the Monster Planet Inferno reality. Team members connected to the system trying to save him are starting to suffer physical bruises from virtual blows received in the game/reality.
Act 3: Entering the Abyss
The tension between Diego and Beatrice reaches a breaking point when they must decide who to save first: Jean-Paul or Tarina. Diego argues that Jean-Paul is in greater danger because he was playing Monster Planet Inferno, an ultraviolent game where players battle hordes of grotesque creatures. Beatrice, however, refuses to prioritize the pro-gamer over her own flesh and blood, especially since Tarina was only playing a non-violent puzzle game. But even Tarina’s peaceful world may hold unseen dangers.
As the VV team debates their next move, they receive a grim update from Akarsh: time in these alternate realities does not flow the same way as in the real world. For Jean-Paul and Tarina, days—or even weeks—may have passed, despite only hours elapsing in the real world. This revelation adds a new layer of urgency to their mission.
Beatrice and Akarsh, joined by Mo and Judy Wu, VV’s chief programmer, gear up in the last remaining prototype suit, ready to dive into the alternate realities. Judy, a brilliant programmer in her early 30s with a deep brain stimulation (DBS) device to manage her epilepsy, is crucial to the operation. Her connection to the game’s core mechanics, and her ability to navigate its code, makes her indispensable.
Once inside the system, the team finds themselves in two vastly different worlds. Mo and Beatrice are tasked with entering Tarina’s world, a whimsical, serene environment filled with puzzles and hidden treasures. Tarina, however, is not the girl they expect to find. After spending what feels like weeks in this strange new world, Tarina has adapted, and she no longer wants to return home. Her attachment to the puzzle game’s peaceful nature provides a stark contrast to the horrors unfolding in Jean-Paul’s reality.
Meanwhile, Akarsh and Judy venture into Jean-Paul’s hellish environment: Monster Planet Inferno. The game is a brutal, chaotic landscape filled with nightmarish creatures, and Jean-Paul is no longer just a gamer—he’s become a part of this violent world, fighting for survival against relentless waves of enemies.
Act 4: The Battle for Survival
As Beatrice and Mo work to convince Tarina to return, they encounter an unexpected complication: new characters have appeared in the game—characters that neither Judy nor Akarsh programmed. These entities, seemingly aware of the intruders’ presence, begin to sabotage their efforts, pulling Tarina deeper into the game’s puzzles and blocking their path out. Beatrice is heartbroken, realizing that Tarina’s mind is slipping further away, tethered to this alternate reality by forces they don’t fully understand.
In Monster Planet Inferno, Akarsh and Judy locate Jean-Paul, but he’s not the man he once was. Days of combat and isolation have left him physically and mentally drained, and his grip on reality is slipping. Jean-Paul is beginning to lose himself to the game, his sense of identity fractured as he becomes more of a character in the virtual world than a real person.
As the team battles their way through both realities, they face a terrifying realization: the virtual worlds they thought they knew are not merely simulations. These game worlds are living, evolving entities with their own rules, and they have no intention of letting their new inhabitants go without a fight.
With time running out, the team decides to try a risky maneuver: using Judy’s DBS implant as a direct interface with the game. By linking her brain to the VR system, Judy hopes to manipulate the code from the inside, creating a “back door” that will allow them to pull Jean-Paul and Tarina back into the real world. But the process is dangerous—overloading her implant could cause irreversible damage to Judy’s brain. This is made more difficult by the fact that the quantum module has becomes a frantic entity, making continuous changes to itself in an attempt to “perfect” its code. As each adjustment leads to new unintended side effects, the computer’s functionality and logic begin to deteriorate, eventually causing it to operate chaotically. Human intervention only fuels its recursive error correction, turning it into a volatile force that behaves in unpredictable and destructive ways.
Act 5: The Final Push
As Judy connects to the system, the stakes are raised to their highest. Jean-Paul is losing his battle in the Monster Planet Inferno reality. Team members connected to the system trying to save him are starting to suffer physical bruises from virtual blows received in the game/reality. Diego’s jealous loser brother Rafi (think Fredo to Michael Corleone) has stolen essential company code and sold it to another firm, but this may actually help them if they can get that earlier code version back, since the current program has been corrupted from mutant code written because of quantum computing’s tendency toward errors caused by wave interference of the qubit. Diego manages to black out half of Silicon Valley’s computer companies, stealing their computing power to use in the rescue operation, but they still don’t know if the missing players will come back “in full resolution,” or as blobs on the floor. Even if they do get the gamers back, if the press finds out what happened to them, Vasquez Virtual will be ruined, and the whole gaming industry may be outlawed as being too dangerous.
In Monster Planet Inferno, Akarsh and Jean-Paul face a climactic battle against the game’s final boss, a massive creature known as Inferno, whose fiery form mirrors the game’s apocalyptic landscape. Jean-Paul, weakened and disoriented, relies on Akarsh’s guidance to stay alive, but it’s clear that if they don’t escape soon, they’ll be consumed by the game’s ever-expanding chaos.
Just as all seems lost, Judy manages to crack the game’s code, opening the “back door” to both realities. Beatrice pulls Tarina out of the game, while Akarsh and Jean-Paul make their final stand against Inferno. In a desperate gamble, Akarsh sacrifices his own safety to ensure Jean-Paul’s escape, sending him through the portal just as the monster delivers a killing blow.
The team returns to the real world, battered but alive. Jean-Paul, barely conscious, is immediately taken to a hospital, while Tarina yells at Beatrice for taking her out of the game, which had become more real for her than her life. Diego, watching the aftermath unfold, is silent, contemplating the cost of his ambition. As VV’s stock plummets and the VR6 project is shut down, Diego faces the harsh reality that his creation nearly destroyed everything.
Epilogue: The Aftermath
In the weeks that follow, VV is rocked by scandal. Mo’s exposé on the VR6 disaster hits the headlines, and Diego is forced to testify before Congress about the ethical implications of his technology. Beatrice resigns from VV, vowing to never let her family suffer for the sake of corporate greed again. Akarsh, recovering from his injuries, reflects on the dangers of playing with forces beyond their control.
As for Jean-Paul and Tarina, their futures remain uncertain. Though they have returned from their respective worlds, neither is the same. Tarina struggles to adjust to life outside of the puzzle game, and Jean-Paul, haunted by the horrors of Monster Planet Inferno, questions his identity as both a gamer and a human being.
The final shot lingers on the abandoned VR6 haptic suit, sitting in the corner of a darkened room. The technology may be dormant, but the mysteries it uncovered—about reality, consciousness, and the very fabric of the universe—are far from resolved.
Deep Game leaves audiences questioning not only the boundaries between virtual and real worlds, but also the ethics of innovation and the unchecked power of human ambition.
"The App"
(Dramatic Series)
This story may seem like science fiction, but you’ll see it happen in real life before you know it!
The basis of this story is the simple combination of two technolgies that in fact exist right now—into what people soon come to call simply “The App.” When scaled to smart phones, and made available to everyone on their mobile phone—for a price, of course—the effects on society are massive, universal, and permanent. At first, many groups are against it. The religious right rails against it. The ACLU says it is unconstitutional. Many people say it is a fraud, that it doesn’t really work. Entire countries ban The App.
The FCC, the FTC, and the Department of Justice all try to ban The App. But the FBI, the CIA, and the Department of Homeland Security all use it routinely, as do most teenagers. Because it works. The App is promptly taken off the market by Presidential decree—its effects are that devastating. Now hackers offer the previous, less reliable (but still functional) version on “jailbreaked” iPhones . (iPhones with unauthorized modifications to the iOS that allow unauthorized apps to run on them.) Israel, Vietnam, and the UAE sell android phones with their version of The App installed, though all three ban its use in their own countries by all but top officials, and that under strict guidelines. A Supreme Court justice is assassinated in an attempt to prevent the Court from reversing the Presidential ban, but the ban is declared unconstitutional, and the app goes back on the market.
“The App” will grip viewers’ attention, because they will realize this is NOT science fiction. This is technology we will see in the near future. The power of this story lies not in the machinations of governments and groups—although those will certainly be compellling. The true power of the story is how The App changes the lives of every individual who uses it and veryone they interact with. The App will cause chaos in schools and workplaces. It will cause fistfights in bars and other public spaces. And it won’t be stopped.
You’ll want to watch The App because you’ll want to be prepared for it when the real thing hits the market.
I dreamed up the basics of the story, then brainstormed story points and large scale potentials of The App, as well as a few individual and family stories. But this story is way too big for me to write. It will need a Hollywood writing team.
Inquiries are welcome, but I will give out further details only through an agent.
